Logitech M570 Wireless Trackball

The Logitech M570 Wireless Trackball is Logitech's move to bring new technology to the old standby that paved the way for laptop computing. Trackballs are great for people with wrist problems and the M570 is an excellent product.

Page 4: Use, Conclusion

Going from a regular moving mouse to a stationary trackball is something you need to really get used to. After about an hour of use, the motion of the trackball becomes fluid. The M570 fits my large hands well and the placement of the buttons and the trackball for the thumb is excellent. ASE Publishing has seen many different types of mice in its history and the trackball style has always been a big consideration when recommending an input device.

The M570 has laser tracking so you won't have to worry about dust or slippage, but the ball needs to be cleaned every so often. It is easy to remove by pushing it out from the bottom. You don't want to get grime build up when using it for as long as the battery lasts. Needless to say, we couldn't verify the 18 month expectation of battery life. We didn't notice any battery problems in our weeks of use, though.

The scroll action is traditional. Each tick is a scroll action, as it should be. There are no gimmicks here, just a well functioning input device. The back button will get the most use and its position is fine. A quick pointer finger movement can hit this button. The forward button is easy to hit as well, but most people remap this button to something more useful.

We like the overall shape of this input device. In fact, Logitech may do well to produce a laser mouse with this shape. It feels like a large G7 in hand and that is a good thing. The only minus to the shape is that lefties won't be able to use the M570, but they are used to that happening.

Why use trackballs? Think of the movement that you do when using a mouse. Your wrist constantly moves and angles in different ways. With a trackball, your position is static. Once you feel comfortable, you don't need to move your wrist. This is a huge benefit to people that suffer (or are concerned about) repetitive stress injuries. Carpal tunnel is one such problem that occurs. Save your wrists and use a trackball!

All in all, this is an excellent update to the TrackMan line of input devices from Logitech. It is good to see the trackball get some additional features after some time.

The M570 retails for about $50 (Amazon Link) at the time of posting. For a trackball style input device, you'd be hard pressed to find another along these lines. With the improvement in technology such as the laser tracking, Logitech will probably continue to see people that love trackballs flock to their product lines. The fact that this style of input device saves your wrists for moving around should get people to at least try the M570 out. It is wireless, has a unifying receiver, and has laser tracking. You couldn't ask for more from the old standby of the trackball. Logitech did well with this product. While it may not please everyone, the people that use trackballs will want to check the M570 for themselves.

ASE Publishing would like to thank Logitech for making this review possible.